Ex-SAS man guilty of weapons charges

MASTERMIND: Mann has been found guilty of seeking to possess dangerous weapons

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By Agencies

A ZIMBABWE court has acquitted most of 70 suspected mercenaries charged with weapons offences in an alleged plot to topple the government of Equatorial Guinea but found their British leader, Simon Mann, guilty.

Most of the men held in Zimbabwe had last month pleaded guilty to lesser charges of violating Zimbabwe's immigration and civil aviation laws when their plane landed in Harare in March.

A conviction under immigration and aviation laws carries a small fine or a short prison term.

Sixty-six men, all travelling on South African passports, were found not guilty by a magistrate sitting at a make-shift courthouse in the Harare maximum security Chikurubi prison.

Mann was found guilty on Friday of attempting to possess dangerous weapons while prosecutors dropped charges against two and could not say the fate of one other.

Charges of breaching Zimbabwe's firearms and security laws could lead to a 10-year jail term.

The 67 men were on board a plane that stopped over in Zimbabwe on March 7 to pick up weapons from the state arms manufacturer that they claim were to be used to guard a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The men were arrested along with three others who were awaiting them at Harare airport and they were accused of plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.
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